To prevent a fire from spreading, different sections of a building must be constructed as fire-resistant compartments. This means they will resist fire for a specified period of time (usually 30 minutes). If a fire is contained in a compartment, it won’t spread to other parts of the building. People can evacuate safely and firefighters can extinguish the fire.
Fire doors
One of the most important ways to keep a building safe is through the use of fire doors. Fire doors are specially made to resist fire for a certain amount of time and keep the fire contained within that compartment. However, fire doors need to be regularly checked and maintained to ensure they will work effectively. In addition, fire doors can only compartmentalise a fire, if they are kept closed.
Installations
Whilst carrying out a job, it is key to make sure you are aware of holes and gaps in the walls from installing piping and wiring through a building. When you drill holes through a building to run cables and those holes aren’t filled in, you severely compromise any fire safety plans in place. If a fire starts, it will spread through any gaps, igniting anything flammable in its path.
It takes seconds for a fire to spread through a hole that is the size of a pen nib. Once a fire has the opportunity to spread, it can take over the whole building which makes an escape virtually impossible.
For more fire safety information, go to www.fireco.uk